Rubber Bands Hold New Clues in D.B. Cooper Case

Poor D.B. Cooper. They just won’t let the iconic hijacker rest in peace--or keep living it up in peace, whichever the case may be. Almost forty years after the man parachuted from an airliner and into legend (leaving only a necktie and a mesmerized public behind), theorists are following yet another new trend in the only unsolved hijacking case in U.S. history.

And it comes down to rubber bands this time.

The old school of thought, bolstered by discovery of various artifacts in the Cascade Mountain ‘drop’ region over the ensuing years, maintained that Cooper was separated from his take while dropping to earth, and probably died from the jump as well.

Now researchers are realizing that the rubber bands dividing his loot should have disintegrated about 4 months after being left in the open, wild mountains.

But hikers found some of the banded money 7 years after the original deed took place.

Did Cooper survive and bury some of his haul, after all? Did he make good on his escape and come back and forth later when he needed to make a withdrawal from "The First National Bank of the Wilderness?"